Marin History Watch: Designer shopping in San Rafael

On March 11, 1965, opening ceremonies for Northgate Fashion Mall in Terra Linda were attended by city officials and members of the Freitas family who had sold the land to developers. Anchored by Sears and the Emporium (and later featuring a smaller version of City of Paris), the open-air mall with plants, reflecting pools and fountain was designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, who also landscaped the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, the F.D.R. Memorial in Washington, D.C., Ghirardelli Square, Levi Plaza and Sea Ranch in Sonoma County. (Halprin's Harvard classmates included architects Philip Johnson and I.M. Pei.) In 1986, the mall was enclosed, remodeled and renamed the Northgate mall.

History Watch is provided by the Marin History Museum, www.marinhistory.org, and appears Tuesday in the Generations section. Images included in History Watch are available for purchase by calling 382-0770 or by email at photoservices@marinhistory.org.